well, the usual (or standard) drill, look you see. i've read a further two - not three, not five and not just one - books, so now it is time for me to speak of them here. not speak, i guess, but write. although i guess it is my "speaking" through words, no this is getting distracting.
it is with delight that i stress the sentiment of the title, which is intended to imply that the two (not four, three, five, etc) books i read were highly satisfactory reading. how satisfactory? very satisfactory, indeed. oh.
as usual, then, a look at the two (no i am not doing the numbers in brackets any more) novels which were read, followed by a quick, spoiler free review. kind of.
Ruin Beach by Kate Rhodes sounded like it would be a quite interesting "return home to solve a crime" mystery thriller, and it turned out to be close to this. The Taking Of Annie Thorne by CJ Tudor sounded like it would be a quite interesting "return home to solve a crime" mystery thriller, and it very much turned out to be this and then a good deal more.
yes. two very similar themed novels in terms of premise, and indeed both share an interesting narrative. but the stories themselves are radically different from each other, which might (might) be clear if i am somehow able to write all this proper. there is something of a temptation to look at both books together, as it happens, but this seems unfair. oh, yeah, anyway, as usual a *** SPOILER WARNING *** be in place, although i shall try to proceed carefully.
the provenance of my copy? almost certainly Tesco and their ever dwindling sized bookshelf, with this being a select "novel of the week" at the time. which is to say it shall have been priced at either £3.00, £3.50 or maybe £2.50, depending on how long ago this came out and when exactly they commenced shoving prices up.
plot? a police officer detective type, on shaky ground in terms of retaining his employment for reasons never made compellingly clear, works and hopes to continue to work on the small, sleepy, nothing much happens island where he was born and has since returned. the idea of nothing much happening all comes to an end when an inexplicable murder takes place, shocking the close knit community of inhabitants. or, as the investigation progresses, is it a close knit community, was the crime inexplicable and could the incident be seen as being at all as shocking as first presumed? well, that is sort of the plot to it all, it was certainly something like that on the back of the book, along with the price, which had be intrigued enough to give it a go.
a truth would be that the write up had a Wicker Man sense to it, and that was what interested me enough to give it a go. the book doesn't quite follow on this expectation, but nonetheless, or if you will all the same, i found it interesting, and steadfastly remained engrossed in reading to try and work out exactly who had done what, and to what end. yes, satisfactory ending.
the highlight, for me, was the flawed narrator style of the protagonist. yes, sure, that kind of thing is supposed to be the job of the writer and that, but this was something different. normally flaws get heavily or ham fistedly signposted by writers that overstep the bounds. here, the longing, the loneliness of the narrator take a subtle background place, presented as casual thought as they should. does this point make sense? i hope so, for the narrative style was really a winner here. and the fact that it is a really, really good story, layered with yes, no, maybe potential leads and clues which are all plausible and make sense.
provenance of my copy? recently, and £3.50, at Tesco, again. yes, i do look at other places for books, but i am there more frequently i suppose, and anyway Morrisons always charge 50p more. regular, actual book shops are just too far away. even if i got them at that price, costs of fuel, time of driving and parking fees knack it. oh.
the plot? a less than successful and down on his luck teacher with a troubling past returns to his home town (more of a village) really to take up a post made recently available via a quite horrific incident. what appears to be the return home to lick wounds and rebuild soon becomes very clearly not at all what is going on.
i have no wish to speak more of the plot, for i fear that anything else i added would well and truly be a "spoiler" of sorts, or might well give away some of the enjoyment of reading. and this, believe or trust me, or accept my view, is a truly special, remarkable and thoroughly engaging read. let me be honest, the moment i saw a new book by the author of Chalk Man, it was bought and immediately jumped over some 8 or 10 books i have sat here waiting to be read. you may well have interpreted this for yourself, but in no way was that decision incorrect.
again, like Ruin Beach, much of the appeal of the novel comes from how the flaws of the narrator flow naturally, not being "forced" for the sake of telling a story. everything actually feels like flowing memory, which is a spectacular trick for a writer to pull off as well as can be found in both of these novels. but, this one in particular, for if i had to choose yes it was the favourite of the two.
there is a constant concern i have with this sort of post, one of how by not wishing to say too much i end up saying too little. i can only hope this is not the case, or true. my wish really is to just flag up or alert to the merits of some novels, or the failings of a few. at all times the focus, however, has to be on making sure i do not distract from the experience anyone else has.
in stating the obvious, it is always a treasured delight when you get to read a book that you are left entirely satisfied with, and have no complaints beyond the fact that the story is now finished. the cost of the book itself is irrelevant, it's that reward for time invested in reading i speak of.
my very best wishes of good fortune to CJ Taylor. to have produced two such superb novels with her first two books is nothing short of fantastic, but i would speculate adds to pressure on the third. i, we, readers, can but have confidence. as for Kate Rhodes, yes, on the basis of Ruin Beach i would indeed wish to read more of her works. and will, as and when i spot them on my travels.
right, so, anyway, as ever, hope this is of some use to someone somewhere!
be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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